Past Excursion
by 00JellaNilzzZ
Summary: It was by accident that Tsuna was sent to the past but why is it that his presence in the past is what's tying it down to the history known in the future? AU time travel fic
1. Prologue

Disclaimer (for the whole series of this fanfiction because it's tiresome to repeat it over and over again): I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn, it belongs to Akira Amano.

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Past Excursion

Prologue

12/03/13

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Blue skies, cool breeze, peaceful surroundings, and soft lush grass on his back. Tsuna sighed in contentment and closed his eyes as he laid down with his arms propped at the back of his head in a relaxing pose.

"Now this is what I call a vacation," he mumbled to himself.

A gust went by to ruffle the leaves on the trees. Humming happily to himself, he can't help but smile at the refreshing setting. This is by far the best vacation he'd ever had, unlike all those times Reborn had arranged one for himself and/or his family. For the past ten years, he'd been to Mafia Land and to many different countries intended for his breaks for countless of times. The first half of those times, he was still naïve and hopeful enough to have wished for a quiet and relaxing rest without the worries that comes along with being the boss of Vongola. Oh, how ignorant he'd been back then! So, as always and as he should have expected, Reborn somehow had created chaos whenever and wherever he goes to every single time whether he's on vacation or not. It's not a question of whether Reborn would interfere or not. It's more of _when_ would Reborn intervene. He had to always be on guard **even on vacation**! No. Scratch that. He had to _always_ be on guard **ESPECIALLY** on _vacation_ because somehow Reborn found more ways to bring madness to his life on those occasions. But at the moment, none of that madness is around nor are Reborn and his family for that matter, so he could relax in peace for once, "I should thank Hayato, Lambo and Giannini once I got back."

The so called "vacation" Tsuna was having at the moment hadn't really been planned nor was it caused by a spur-of-the-moment agenda. Oh, no. It was purely accidental so he can't be blamed. Really. It was all said three individuals' fault. How did it happen, you may ask? Well, as stated earlier, the aforementioned three were the cause of this unexpected circumstance he's in. You see, despite Giannini having improved greatly through the years, he still had those _clumsy_ moments that whenever he tried to _fix _or _improve_ something, it still turns awry. Like that time when Giannini got his hands on Hibari's tonfas seven years ago. _I still had no idea how he managed to procure those from Hibari. Hibari practically sleeps with them! _He had that sudden inspiration to _improve_ said tonfas. He had apparently planned to install bombs that would shoot out of its compartments so Hibari could disseminate enemies even from afar. _Oh, the horror!_ Once the tonfas had been given back, Hibari tried to open the compartments to_ bite the herbivore to death_ but instead of simply unlocking the chains, it blew up. Yes, it blew up. It blew up in Hibari's already seething face. Needless to say, Giannini had to hide himself within a room with two feet thick walls of the highest grade reinforced metals… underground… and at Antarctica… for a month. You would have thought he learned his lesson after that, but Giannini had a thick skull. _A really… REALLY thick skull. _

And now, Giannini's recent _project_ had been to _improve_ the Ten-Year Bazooka so the time limit would extend to ten minutes and would supposedly replace the user with their 20-year-old-self rather than their usual 10-year-old-self. It was all still fine and good back then, as long as no one gets shot by the bazooka, up until it had the full approval from Shoichi or Spanner for its authentic efficiency. So he went to have the regular monthly check for Giannini's progress with the newest Vongola technology at the inventor's laboratory, which is half-a-mile away from the main HQ but was still within the Vongola grounds. The said laboratory was situated far away for safety precautions but, apparently, with Vongola, distance isn't enough to stop pandemonium from happening_. Sigh. _So when Lambo came charging in with Gokudera in tow with a couple of his trademarked dynamites in hand, he should have known. It all happened so fast from then. There were explosions, shouting and cursing like usual; but the next thing he knew, he was already engulfed by a familiar pink smoke. A familiar array of multi-coloured streams and a bright light came next; so when his eyes opened, he was greeted by the sight of a meadow atop a small hill looking over a small town of old time Italy.

_Then again… Even if it hadn't really been my fault Reborn would still find ways to blame it all to me later on… _

_Meh, I'll worry about that later._

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A/N: Yeah, and here was the prologue of that time travel fic that I said I wanted to try writing. I would have made it longer but I thought it would be better to cut it here. Feel free to proceed to the next chapter since this is a double update right off the bat.


	2. Chapter 1

Past Excursion

Chapter 1

12/03/13

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_"Being sent to the past wasn't so bad,_" Tsuna mused as he continued feeding ducks with the loaf of bread he had on his hands. He just got out of his current job (manning a bakery) and had made his way to the park to get himself relaxed.

It had been a rather _exciting_ month since he'd arrived at the past. And he'd already concluded, based off all the news and gossips he'd heard from different people, that he's about 400 years back; which means he's around the time when Primo was still in rule of Vongola. In fact, Vongola hadn't been established as a mafia family just yet and is still a vigilante group running around for five years!* He remembered reading from those history books Reborn forced him to read and memorize that these were the times when Vongola had only begun rising in infamy to the surface's public and underworld. Vongola would only become a mafia family once Ricardo takes in the mantle from Giotto in a few more years. And it was still rather small compared to how Vongola would be after ten generations, but it had already begun accumulating some reputation that even civilians had begun hearing Vongola every once in a while.

So what if he might have been sent to the time of Primo's rule? All he had to do was keep out of Vongola's radar and of any other crime syndicates for the matter, and he could enjoy his vacation in his own terms. He doesn't know how long he'd be stuck in the current timeline, since it has been a month from the time when he arrived, but he was sure Reborn would find a way to get him back to their present. He always does. Although Reborn would probably make sure he'd be screwed ten times over with the punishment for being careless, he'll live through that. Vongola would be fine without him for a little while longer, as long as he wouldn't be gone for a year, that is (he wasn't sure whether time moves alongside the time from the future with the time he spends in the past or if it moves faster or slower); his guardians can take care of the _famiglia_ and he's sure Ganauche, one of the few guardians of the Ninth that's not out for retirement yet**, wouldn't mind helping out during the times that Reborn's busy shooting out bullets and threatening the rest of Vongola's technicians and mechanics to get Tsuna back to their time. So there's nothing to worry about on that account. All he needs to be concerned with was getting himself enough nourishment, some clothes and a shelter. So he had needed a job.

And so, during the whole month since Tsuna has been sent to the past, he'd been hopping through different jobs from time to time. He'd worked as a store keeper, an old couple's gardener, fed animals in the barn, and countless other things. He wasn't really picky when it comes to these kinds of things. Reborn had made him do worse than these, so he hadn't minded doing manual labour so he could continue to provide for himself. Though he had been careful to avoid getting involved with any shady business. It's bad enough that others had mistook him as Vongola Primo or at least as someone related to Vongola Primo so many times that he was forced to fight off several grunts who he couldn't ran away from. This is also why he had to jump from town to town so no one would find him easily. He wouldn't want to get deliberately involved to the underworld and be forced to be a target to_ mafiosi _more than he already is!

_Sigh._ Perhaps he already overstayed his welcome. There's been a noticeable increase to the lot that were out to kill him. He just hope none of those grunts he'd been fighting with were well-known or else he'd gather more attention to himself. It's been getting harder to run away from them as well lately. They seemed to have caught on with his evasion tactics, so they began sealing off exits before confronting him. It was a good thing they were all weak and he hadn't needed to use his flames, else it could have been worse.

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_Vongola HQ…_

The shuffling of papers were the only sounds echoing within the room. The occupants of the room were reading a report sans Giotto, whose standing by the window overlooking the garden of their base. He had already read the information written on the papers and he didn't know what to feel about the matter. It was a baffling and worrying news, both to their growing vigilante group and to Giotto himself. Although there were always circumstances that were worrisome to their faction every now and then; this case, however, was a bit more personal than the usual. This is also why he had waited until they've tackled all the other issues that were needed to be dealt with first before proceeding with this. It's not so much as cumbersome as the rest of their concerns but with the way things are going, he felt the need to undertake it now before it gets worse. There's just this sensation within himself, like a very strong pull from the back of his mind, that's telling him to find this individual. He doesn't understand where this sensation came from nor when it had begun, but ever since he could remember he's been able to sense things strongly with his intuition. His friend, Cozarto, had even gave it a name. The redhead called it "hyper intuition" because it had been proven to be never wrong and that it sounds better than "super intuition".*** (He really wonders about his friend sometimes, what with all the senselessness he could come up with.) And he, along with all the people around him, had learned to trust it. So now, he'll be doing the same.

Hearing the last of the papers being placed back to the table, Giotto once again took his place at the head of the table, all the while scanning any reactions from the people surrounding him. They were all silent, but he knew they were all mulling the information over their heads. Looking to his right, he spotted G frowning over the pieces of paper in front of him and contemplating about the information he just read. His tattooed friend was probably already going through various scenarios of how it would affect them. (And hopefully, his friend isn't overthinking it.) Continuing further, he sees Lampo's seemingly bored face. The lazy noble may seem uninterested, but he knew better than to assume it that way. Other people may find the teen as childish and a weakling, but Lampo had a sharp mind hidden within that head of his. The scattered arrangement of the papers, the slight knot in his forehead, the incisive look in his eyes, and the barely held clenched fist curled to support his face in an act of false nonchalance were all the proof he'd ever need of what the teen's true thoughts and concerns were. Then, right beside the green-head was Ricardo, his cousin. Ricardo is still in his teens, just a year or two older than Lampo, but he's already been identified as someone capable by most of the people within their faction.# It's the way he speaks and carries himself that draws the people to let him lead them, and someday, Giotto might just let Ricardo take over his position once the time was right_. But not right now. _Carrying on, Giotto proceeded with the individual on his immediate left, Asari. Asari may be as gentle as the soft breeze on a summer day, but he could be as fierce as his blades when he felt his comrades being threatened by anything. The noticeable intense look on his eyes and his stiff posture bathed with a dangerous calmness signifies how much the Asian is worried. Then, next to Asari was Daemon, who had his eyes closed and arms crossed in front of his chest. Daemon was one of those people that one would find it hard to read even for Giotto. But despite the amused curl on his lips and aura of casualness, the firm coiling of his arms and slight rigidity in his pose confirmed the man's irked persona. He had been, after all, the most concerned and ambitious for Vongola's future. And lastly, there's Cozarto sitting beside Daemon. His childhood friend was looking up at him, openly perturbed by the news. The worrisome look on the redhead's face was already asking him so many questions. And he understood it quite clearly as he took another gaze at the sheet of paper in front of him.

The subjected individual in the report has to be confronted as soon as possible. Why? Because the situation this person is in was going to brew trouble to himself and to the vigilante group.

The report they were currently mulling over holds information about an individual running around Italy for a while now. The issue? He's been defeating _mafiosi_ left and right along with the renowned strong opponents without even breaking a sweat, which meant that this person is really strong. And since they don't know this person, he could easily be either with or against their faction. If it were the former he might prove to be a big help to them, however if it were the latter, that'll be a whole bigger problem. For now, however, the individual in question didn't seem to show any hostility towards Vongola. So how were they going to be affected? It seemed that every_ mafiosi_ who faced him had all claimed that he's either Giotto or someone related to him. It's either this person had the guts to claim himself as Giotto or as a person of relation to him, or he just coincidentally resembles Giotto. There's a really slim chance that the man is actually a long lost relative, because other than Ricardo and his family, there's not any more relatives of theirs to be ever known as living. He knew there was no one else because he had Alaude investigate it one time.

Other than the vague descriptions given about of what this person looks like (a very nondescript guise with a tuft of brown hair, brown eyes, lean figure, and is slightly taller than average) and the basic fighting movements used (i.e. simple punches and kicks) to defeat various_ mafiosi _as well as the diverse list of towns this person had been found in; there's nothing else to be known. All they knew was the countless defeated _mafiosi_'s claims and some civilians' descriptions that resembled the man's appearance that may or may not be the same person at all. There's not a name nor any information of where this person really came from. Not even the civilians' agreed on one name for this individual, so it's safe to say that he's careful enough to not give his real name, which they found _very_ suspicious. They didn't know when this person had started going around making trouble nor what motives he had; but one thing's for sure, if this man doesn't stop what he's doing, then Vongola would be facing the brunt of this problem whether they knew the man or not. This person was already making a name for himself and there's a lot of people that believes that he may be Vongola, so if this continues, numerous _mafiosi_ would be found knocking at their door to deliver vengeance to Vongola.

Finally deciding that the rest of the occupants had enough time to mull over the issue, he cleared his throat to gather attention. Once he was sure he had their attention, he propped his elbows to the table as his hands clamped to one another so to support his leaning chin. Sweeping his gaze once more, he started, "I believe all of you knows what this information entails. It doesn't matter whether this fellow's a friend or foe, he had to be stopped. We'll be more of a target for the mafia at this rate. We could handle one or two _famiglie_ after our heads, and that's already pushing it, but we can't have half - if not all - of the mafia against us."

"We're already in half the mafia's hit list, and the other half's just waiting for us to strike them. There's not going to be much change, Giotto," Daemon shrugged, seemingly not bothered by the situation they're discussing.

"There's gonna be a **lot **of change, _coglione. _They're going to have a better reason to attack us!" G spat, glaring daggers at said illusionist.

"Since when had the mafia needed reasons to assault anyone?" a challenging smirk coloured Daemon's face. He seemed to be enjoying G's disgruntled figure whereas the said peeved individual scowled at Daemon's amused face.

"It's not so much as their need for a reason to not attack us but it's more of a reason why they need to not hold back from attacking us," Asari cut in before G could spat back at Daemon.

"Vindice," Ricardo finally spoke in accordance with Asari's statement. The name instantly brought about a tense atmosphere while an audible gulp was heard from Lampo.

Nodding at Ricardo, Asari continued, "There's not much information we could gather from the supposed mafia law enforcers and even in the mafia itself, there's an inadequate amount of knowledge to be known about them; but every _mafiosi_ fears Vindice, which is why they follow their laws. And it has been strongly implied that _famiglie_ could not simply attack organizations outside the mafia unless they've been threatened deliberately. It would alert the government and that would bring about a sizeable mess."

"S-So…" Lampo squeaked out. Embarrassed, the green-headed teen obnoxiously cleared his throat to save his pride before continuing, "So, what're we going to do?"

"We'll have to deal with this fellow accordingly as soon as he's found," Giotto's eyes briefly swiped to a (purposely) dark corner of the room, already knowing the certain individual hiding in the shadows was listening in and had caught on with what to be done. Most of the people sitting around the table had already taken notice of the individual in the shadows but hadn't said a word about it, knowing the situation this individual would have to deal with if seen taking part with their faction's activities. But that doesn't stop Daemon from taunting this individual with his haughty smirks. And an indistinct click came from the shadows, signifying that Daemon had successfully irked the man. In response to this, Lampo (the only person that hadn't known of this hiding persona) squawked in his seat with wide eyes and low mutterings of "_Dio caro_, I can't believe I haven't noticed _he_'s here!"

"So the little birdie would take care of the problem then," Daemon chuckled at his own little joke as a barely held back killer intent was released from the shadowed corner, but Daemon resumed with his speech as if unaffected by it, "That solves the problem then. If I had known, I wouldn't have given this issue a fuss. Although, this _fellow _seems strong, the little birdie might not be able to handle this after all."

Another click resounded from the corner before the faint presence left the room.

"Daemon, please stop antagonizing Ala-" Giotto cleared his throat to cover his slip up, "Please don't antagonize him. You know he's a busy man and it's already hard as it is to handle all his responsibilities with or without showing up in the open." He almost pleaded to the illusionist but knowing that his requests wouldn't be heeded no matter how much he begged, Giotto simply sighed in exasperation at his guardian's antics.## Was it really so hard to wish that for once, his guardians would stop giving him headaches? Sighing to himself once more, he just hoped that no bigger headache would come his way and that everything would turn out fine with the mission he insinuated to his Cloud guardian.

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Notes:

*According to Reborn Wiki, Vongola only became a mafia family after Giotto stepped down and gave leadership to Ricardo, Vongola Secondo. So I'll be following that. Vongola would be a vigilante group here instead of the usual mafia family portrayed in all other time travel stories because I want some difference. Although Vongola is still a vigilante group, note that Sepira had already given the Vongola rings to them and thus already had his guardians established. Since it was stated that Giotto had created the vigilante group due to Cozarto's suggestion during his mid-teens, I'll be assuming that it was when he was around 16 years old. In turn, Giotto would be around 21 here, which means that Vongola has already been 5 years since its founding. I think 5 years is enough time for Vongola to build reputation to be somewhat known to the public. Also, I don't want Tsuna to be older than Giotto (because I've always had the image in my brain of Giotto being older than Tsuna even when it's a time travel fic), so he won't be TYLTsuna but instead he'd be just around 18 years of age.

**Since Tsuna has already taken over as Vongola's head, I've assumed that Ninth and his other guardians would fall to retirement as well. But since there were guardians that seem to be young enough, I figured they'd want to stay serving Vongola longer but had stepped down from their positions as guardians so that the new generation could take the reins.

***I just guessed that the term hyper intuition had to come from somewhere or someone, so I just made Cozarto the person who named it such.

#Although Ricardo was supposed to be the person that would take over Vongola after Giotto and somehow converted the justice-driven vigilante group of Giotto's into a mafia family; I think that for Giotto to give the reins to Ricardo and for Ricardo to be accepted to Vongola, he had to be somehow integrated to Vongola even back when it was still a vigilante group. And also, please don't expect Ricardo to be the same as Xanxus. Despite sharing certain things like the flame of wrath and appearance, they won't be sharing the same personalities and ideals. I can't elaborate on that here, but you'll understand what I meant once these story proceeds.

##I can't really go into details (yet) on about why Alaude is working on the shadows, but just know that there's a reason for this. I'll probably be explaining it in the next chapter though, so no need to fret.

Translations (© the internet):

(Italian)

_Famiglia_/_famiglie_ - I use it to refer to the mafia family although it literally means family. I've read somewhere that _famiglie_ is the plural form of _famiglia_, but I'm not really sure. So if anyone knows, please do correct me if I'm wrong.

_Mafioso_/_mafiosi_ - I know most of you already knows what this means especially since it's a well-used term in KHR fanfictions but to those who don't know, it refers to the people/criminals involved in the mafia.

_Coglione _- according to the sources I found in the internet, is a cussing word that is literally an offensive version of testicle and when referred to a person, it usually means idiot, burk, twit, fool.

_Dio caro_ - the Italian equivalent of "dear God."

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A/N: First off, I'd like to say that throughout this fic I'll be hinting various histories about Vongola based off of my schemes (lol). So expect this fic to be more of forming history of Vongola (from the Giotto and the rest of his guardians background and the founding of Vongola itself to the foreshadowing of where the darker themes in the vigilante group started so when Ricardo took over Vongola became a mafia group) and less of Vongola versus enemy mafia family. Though there's no need to make a fuss about it because I would be adding various fight scenes here. I haven't written fight scenes in a long while, so it might turn out crappy or just plain hard to be understood, but I will try to do my best.

Also, if anyone noticed (which I'm sure everyone did) Knuckle is not mentioned here, but he will be in the next chapter along with Alaude. The only hint I could give you of what will happen in the next chapter is that there's gonna be an (hopefully) epic confrontation between Alaude and Tsuna. And about Cozarto's involvement in the vigilante group, I (also) have reasons on why he's in Vongola and have plans on how he'd separate to the faction to create the Simon famiglia. You'll just have to watch out for that.

There's actually a lot of things I've been planning for this fic and not everything's finalized as of yet but I'm open for suggestions and ideas from everyone. Oh, and just so to make it clear, there wouldn't be any pairing here besides what suggested from canon.

Oh and btw, I'd like to ask if you'd prefer reading the translations after the sentence/paragraph the foreign word was used in or at the end of the whole chapter. I know it's hard to scroll up and down the page just so to check the translations then get right back to where you've last read, so I'm asking this now for clarifications. Also, I'm not familiar with Italy and its places and history as well as with the Italian (as well as French and Japanese in the future chapters) language. So if anyone knows, you're welcome to correct me. I'm trying to make this story as close to real life, but with such limited… or rather uncertain resources and lack of its real life experience to my person, I'm going to have to warn you that I cannot and may never even be able to depict accuracy with the on goings within of mafia and vigilante groups. So yeah…

Even though this is kind of short, I hope it's your satisfaction. And if you hadn't read my other fics, I also have to warn you that my writing skills are really, really rusty so I apologise to anything wrong you may have found. But please don't forget to leave a review! Every review pumps me up and I might be able to update fast.

Thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 2

Past Excursion

Chapter 2

12/12/13

It was quiet.

Too quiet.

Tsuna sharpened his senses to the limit, scanning for any potentially strong opponent within the current crowd hiding from him but had found none so he merely continued to simply walk through the outskirts of the town he's currently staying in. It was odd. There were more of them than usual. _What are they planning? _He discreetly let his sights sweep through his surroundings, then quickly hid a grimace. He could easily spot them. They were barely hiding behind the alleyways and empty houses. He could practically see parts of their bodies jutting out of their hiding places. It's like they weren't even trying!

He then stopped and heavily sighed.

_When are they going to learn proper discretion? _He looked up to the sky with a pained expression on his face as he felt and heard movement from the hiding presences. He could already guess where exactly they were with all the noise they're creating from trying to find a better angle to keep watch on him. _What were they thinking? They can't even hide properly!_

Shaking his head in exasperation at the ridiculousness of the situation. He continued on. A month of running, hiding, and barely fighting _mafiosi_ since he arrived in the past had started to bore him. As messed up as it may sound, he's been too used to violence and chaos surrounding him - via his very destructive _famiglia_ - that doing nothing particularly exciting and only evading the enemies had bored him. Of course, he hadn't looked for fights just so to entertain himself. He isn't Hibari. But with nothing to challenge him at all, he started anticipating the inevitable confrontations to whenever _mafiosi_ finds and assaults him. It had become a rather regular occurrence now. And he had simply turned it into a game of cat and mouse (the enemy _mafiosi_ as the mice trying to catch him, the cat… or would a lion give a better analogy?) now since there's really no one strong enough to keep up with him, unlike in the future where there's a sufficient enough number of people that he could look forward to fighting with. He's kind of missing Reborn's craziness even. He hadn't been without it for this long since the Sun Arcobaleno came into his life five years ago (in his present, that is). He almost faltered in his steps as realization hit him. _Damn. To think there'll ever be a day that I'd miss Reborn's sadism. Dino-nii* would certainly laugh at me when he finds out about this._

Inwardly sighing, he brought his thoughts back to the present and grew bored once more when he took notice that his hiding enemies doesn't seem like they'd want to advance just yet. _When are they going to make their move?_

He rolled his eyes when he saw them nudging each other to start their supposed assault. Not wanting to wait any longer, Tsuna decided to take matters to himself and spoke loud enough for his enemies to hear, "You know, if you were planning to ambush me, you could have done that minutes ago. I seriously wouldn't have minded. At all."

A crash sounded to his far left and he turned his sights to it. He found a largely muscled man with a fiercely looking scar on his bald head, trying to smooth out the wrinkles that formed on his black suit from almost falling on his feet. The man must have tripped over the trash can, judging by the fallen tin cylinder and rubbish near the man's feet.

"As expected of the _Inafferabile combattente _(Elusive Combatant)," Tsuna raised an eyebrow at the nickname he seemed to have been dubbed with; although it eerily sounded familiar, he couldn't seem to remember where he'd heard of it before, "We acknowledge your strength. So how about you join my _famiglia, _eh? You'll be a great addition to our ranks."

Quirking his brows higher at the man's offer, Tsuna only felt more incredulous at the situation. _Well, this is new. _Not any one of the other _famiglie_ nor _mafiosi_ he'd encountered have ever offered him to join them. And as supposedly flattering as this was, he couldn't help but be weary. Not with the enemy at hand, but by the implications this offer connotes. The mere mention of a nickname of sorts for him is worrying as it indicates that he's already being recognized. It also means that he'd accidentally started to rebuild a reputation for himself, which is not good. For them to offer him to be part of their _famiglia_ strongly suggests that he had already gotten himself in people's watch list. Being transported in any point of time besides one self's true present is dangerous especially if it's in the past, as events and lives are well connected with the already well-ordered time. Time is fickle and a single small change in the past could have been a vital catalyst to a series of events in the future! Though he'd tried to convince himself that as long as he wouldn't deliberately try to do anything of importance, there wouldn't be of much change to the future. But hoping for only a slight variation to happen is already pushing it. And now, to be of somewhat a known quantity in this period of time could spiral into a big mess. _Not good. This is NOT supposed to happen. _He gritted his teeth in frustration. How could he have been so careless?! He knew he shouldn't have fought and he had taken measures to avoid it but because of his boredom, he'd stopped trying! _Nice work, Dame-Tsuna. Now you're really in trouble. Reborn's so not going to like it once he knew that you've been messing with time. Accidentally or not._

"So, have you decided? _Bramosia famiglia_ would welcome you with open arms! Those other _mafioso_ that we've sent for you before was to merely test your skills. And now that you've proven it, we wouldn't mind having you as our ally! Forgive and forget, right?" the bald boss of the mentioned _famiglia_ seemed to be desperate enough to recruit someone that hadn't been known for long. Tsuna quickly got his thoughts straight. _Think about the connotations later. _Finally focusing on his _problem_ at hand, he could easily deduct that this _famiglia_ was one of those small and the weak that Reborn dubbed as unimportant to even be given his attention for a mere moment of his life. And with all the sweating and fear the man was exuding, it's very obvious that they're very, VERY desperate. This also seemed to be the main reason why there's so many people surrounding him. They fear him. If he answers them a yes, then they'd happily receive a new ally but that fear would not leave them unless he proves his loyalty to them. However, if he ever said no, they planned to overwhelm him with numbers. If he were any other man of lesser value, their plan might actually work. However, he isn't one of those men. After all the experience he'd gained from mere day-to-day bouts with his _famiglia_ to assassinations and all-out wars with other _famiglie_, even the humble him could not deny that he could defeat these men without sweating. He might had have thoughts of wanting to get some form of entertainment from all the men targeting him, but pounding these people to the ground would be more of a hassle than engaging. Pity he'd only been facing men just a bit tougher than these.

_Shit. I'm already wanting entertainment when merely moments ago I've been reprimanding myself about not getting more involved with the past! Tsunayoshi get a hold of yourself! _He unknowingly growled outwardly and as a result, made the people around him be more frightful. Noticing his momentary blunder, he straightened up and put on a mask of indifference, "No thanks. I'm not interested in joining any _famiglia_."

"A-Are you sure?" the leader of his current enemy gulped while trying hard not to show his worried stature, "I thought y-you were smart enough to conclude that we wouldn't be taking n-no for an answer."

"Yes, I'm quite aware of your plans," Tsuna stated, remaineing still and at the ready for the onslaught he'd surely be receiving in any moment. And he had not been disappointed. The enemies quickly got out of their hiding spots with their weapons out and determined to conquer him as soon as their boss gave them the signal.

Sidestepping a punch from the right, he delivered a simple chop simultaneously behind the neck of two enemies near him. He then delivered a low sweep with his leg to the enemies' feet as another man tried to punch him in the face. Making a smooth transition from his crouched position, he swung the same leg to kick a man in his Adam's apple whilst his hands steadied himself to the ground. Swooping his legs upwards some more, he arched his legs in a circle like a propeller and knocked several more men. He shifted his weight to his arms and pushed himself upright, sending another kick that struck a man that had brought down a few more men behind him as he fell. A knee to someone's stomach, an elbow to another's face, and an axe kick brought more men down. He punched to his right, evading a bullet from grazing his left shoulder in the process. A hook to his far left, turning about for an uppercut, and swerving his leg around some more; then another batch of enemies were down for the count. All this happened for a measly time of one minute! Ten minutes after and the roundabout free-for-all is over.

He sighed in disappointment as he walked off the vicinity like nothing happened, clearly unaffected by the recent brawl but contented enough to enjoy the tranquillity of the aftermath. However, as he thought that things had returned to peace once again; merely half an hour after, he begun to get worried. Someone seemed to be determined to follow him around. He'd noticed in the first five minutes the presence of this stalker. He had experienced getting followed before so he knew what to do. He had tried trudging to crowded paths but it was proven to be ineffective. He hadn't known the town enough to try losing the individual in question through the alleys. He tried moving faster and entered turns every which way he could quickly, but it had been easier said than done. The man following him seemed to be fast on his feet. And with his senses and intuition blaring heated signals, it's not that hard to conclude that this spelled trouble. _Damn._

_So, should I confront him or not? _He contemplated to himself as he turned to another corner and quickened his pace even more. There's no point in hiding the fact that he was aware of the stalker's existence now. He made it clear that he knew once he started veering paths faster to lose him, to scare the stalker away, but it was a futile attempt. _It doesn't look like I'm going to lose him nor is he going to give up any time sooner. Unless I use my flames, I'm not going to lose him! So, I guess, I don't have a choice. Might as well get this over with already._

With his mind made up, he dashed out of the town and into a clearing for a confrontation with his stalker. As he stopped at the centre of the clearing, he heard the barely noticeable clicks of his follower's steps just a few feet behind him. He sighed before turning around at his would-be assailant. He was instantly taken aback at the sight at his stalker, and unconsciously took a step back with wide eyes and slack jaws. He gulped. He hadn't expected this nor would he ever want to expect this. To think Primo's Cloud Guardian would have audacity to follow him around for a confrontation! _Shit._

A raised brow from the blonde opposite him brought him out of his stupor. Straightening his posture into a more respectable mien, Tsuna fell into a ready stance that to the untrained eye could have been easily mistaken as casual.

"So…" Tsuna started awkwardly. He was trying hard not to squirm under Alaude's sharp gaze. It's like he's being studied like an abstract object of interest. It eerily felt like he was back in his inheritance ceremony once again, being critically eyed by _mafiosi_ of every kind. He inwardly shuddered at the memory. Shaking his head, he continued as casual as he could, "Is there anything I could do for you?"

Alaude's gaze sharpened, "What's your purpose?"

"What?" Tsuna blinked in confusion at the blonde guardian's question.

"Are you a friend or a foe?"

He breathed out in realization. Alaude had only wanted to confirm where his allegiance goes. Although that relieved him for a bit, more worries were brought out of the picture because of this. Alaude's involvement in his situation further confirms his suspicion that he's getting attention. In fact, he's been getting way too much attention than he could afford to have. If he's presence in the past had started to even cause concern to Alaude and, in turn, Vongola; this means that he's been causing more trouble than he'd wanted and expected. _The problem had gotten worse than I thought! _He frowned with his thoughts. Then, he noticed the slight change in Alaude's stance. It seemed that the blonde was getting ready for aggression. He had stayed quiet for far too long and Alaude must have thought he was an adversary. So, before the Cloud guardian could make the first move, Tsuna spoke with his most neutral voice, "Neither."

He noticed Alaude's confusion as the said man's forehead scrunched a tad in thought. The blonde looked to be having a battle within his self. At the disappearance of discord in the blonde's face, Tsuna concluded that Alaude had made up his mind.

"There cannot be any middle ground in this part of the world. It's either you're with us or against us,"

Frowning some more, Tsuna found himself contemplating of what to answer. He doesn't need to get involved any further, which is the whole reason why he had replied 'neither.' Uttering any answer with his adherence to any of the options would definitely lead him to dangerous grounds that he'd rather not trudge. To say he's a friend with Vongola would ensure that his deeper association to the faction could change things in history. Whereas saying he's an enemy to Vongola would make them retaliate to his person and things would get harder thereafter. And he never even dreamed of becoming an enemy to Vongola, and wouldn't want to be dubbed as their enemy even if he's not in his proper timeline. He gritted his teeth. He's in a very precarious situation, as if he's in between a rock and a hard place. There doesn't seem to be any right choice but he had to give Alaude an answer. And so, with a firm gaze and poise, he responded, "I'm not Vongola's enemy."

A second later, Alaude attacked.

* * *

400 years in the future…

An ominous clicking from a gun echoed in the room.

**"Giannini," **Reborn's calm and quite voice resounded in a threatening manner which made every single soul residing within the room to pale and sweat bullets under the dangerous hitman's presence, "Why isn't _Dame_-Tsuna not back yet? It's been _three DAYS_ since he got shot by that damned bazooka."

"R-Reborn-san…!" a stuttering and profusely panicking Giannini squeaked as the Sun Arcobaleno's gun pointed between his eyes, "The c-calculations and mechanics d-done in the t-ten year bazooka were all a-a-acci-d-dental."

"You think I care?"

"I-It's easy to reverse engineer the bazooka's inner m-mechanics and measurements to f-find which caused the p-p-problem, but solving how it a-affected the change to c-cause the problem isn't! It's hard to make h-heads over tails at something t-that haven't been well-ventured b-before. Even though we knew now that _Decimo_ had been sent to the past d-due to the velocity counting to be higher than that of the speed of light that the _Decimo_ was launched with; pin-p-pointing which time in the past exactly needs to b-be thoroughly i-investigated," Giannini spluttered as fast as he could that Reborn would still be able to follow and understand his explanation, with his attention all the while were pointed solely to the gun merely a few inches away as his whole body shuddered and sweated.

"Tch. Call Shoichi and Spanner and have them come here immediately!" Reborn ordered as his expression turned darker when Giannini tried to say something to negate him, "I don't care if those two were busy with something else or if they were on the other side of the world. I want them here and I want them fast. Three heads are supposedly better than one. And if it proved that it's not… then we might just find those three heads rolling lifelessly on the floor. And one thoroughly incinerated for even inventing something that caused this issue. Do you understand?"

An audible gulp were heard from the Vongola mechanic. The insinuation to the hitman's statement were clearly etched with peril. Similarly as intimated as Giannini, two guardians of the tenth generation echelon were stiffly standing on one side, awaiting their turn to be passed judgment on by Reborn. Gokudera and Lambo were similarly at fault at the situation at hand. They had been the catalyst for their boss' unplanned time travelling after all.

Turning his eyes with the said two, Reborn started playing with his gun. Despite the seemingly calm and cool disposition the hitman was portraying, it was obvious how irked he was. He was even uttering curses in his head at their problem. This is not part of his plans. _He _was supposed to be the one tormenting his victi-… err… student. _He _was supposed the _only _one to have the right to send his student to his predicament. To think his student would let himself get dragged into something like this! He thought he'd thought that _dame _student of his enough to not have gotten shot by a prototype made by Giannini. Accident or not. When he gets back, Reborn's going to make sure he's going to pound it into his student's thick head that one simply do not just stand around when the Giannini-modified-bazooka goes flying off to one's head. Either he going to do it the hard way… or he does it the harder way. A smirk made its way onto his face with his thoughts. He's going to enjoy tormenting his student when he gets back.

The two guardians standing on the sides suddenly felt the need to pray for their boss' wellbeing as Reborn's smirk widened even more.

* * *

Back to 400 years into the past…

Tsuna swerved his body to the right as Alaude attempted to lunge him with his handcuffs. He ducked then arced his foot to the blonde's stomach as a horizontal sweep came from Alaude. Alaude then leaned back to avoid the kick, and delivered a side-kick of his own. Deciding that it was too late to dodge the assault, Tsuna tightened his arms and crossed them in front of his face to stop his opponent's leg from connecting. He winced at the contact. Quickly moving, Tsuna slid the foot to his arm and caught it with his hand. Alaude's leg was then jerked forward and thereby outbalanced him. Tsuna then swung his arm back to create momentum and pushed his palms out to Alaude's side, successfully sending the man a few feet away from him. His opponent moved his body mid-air so he wouldn't end up in a sprawl at the dirt but instead pushed his arms to the ground outward so he could manoeuvre into a backflip and land to the ground with more dignity. Tsuna, not waiting to give the blonde much time to recover, had already sped towards Alaude to barrel the man with a straight punch to the liver, intending to incapacitate. Noticing his plan, Alaude immediately swung his arm and deflected Tsuna's punch to his left while his right hand was preparing to catch the brunette with the handcuffs. Tsuna took his arms back and aimed a high kick for retaliation, so Alaude had to prop both his arms to the side to block the kick. Leaving his one leg still in mid-air, Tsuna twisted his body so his hands met the ground and pushed his other leg to strike the other's chin. The blonde moved his head to the side then leaned back as Tsuna's leg continued its path to his opponent's temple on the side.

This continued on for a while more. The two attacking and dodging each other's attempts to land a blow simultaneously as if they were doing an elaborate dance! And by the looks of things, Tsuna currently had the upper hand. Alaude was already sweating from exertion whereas Tsuna was only just a bit out of breath but was otherwise fine. Fighting with his guardians, and especially Hibari for this particular event, had given him enough experience to be able to handle this kind of fight. Hibari had used the same flow of movements, tactics, and fighting style before against him so he knew what to expect from Alaude, whereas Alaude had to learn to improvise as he goes as Tsuna's fighting style had developed into a mixture of varying styles he learnt from the different people he'd faced before. Having been able to keep up with Tsuna as quickly as he could speaks clearly of his skills. Adding the fact that Tsuna had more experience with fighting harsher and more difficult combats than Alaude at this instance, gave him an advantage. According to what he'd read and learned from history, there's not as much trouble as there is in the future than in the past. They'd decked it as that the future had learnt from the past and developed their learnings more while the past was still on the verge of learning. It was a simple logic but that logic had not told him how much of a heavy hitter Alaude is. Despite having handcuffs as his main weapon, contrary to popular belief, Alaude was not lax with delivering his blows. There's reverent strength and force in each blows that had once or twice made him falter, and made his bones creak and muscles to ache. In terms of strength, both Hibari and Alaude were equal. He'd been on Hibari's ruthless side before as well as experienced being Ryohei's training partner - who veritably adds more force to his punches than anyone, even Hibari's - so he could take on Alaude's strikes. What's making things difficult, however, was Alaude's fast retaliations. Tsuna could get the chance to incapacitate the man! The man's reflexes were just as great as his intuition, fast and definite.

A silent agreement passed through the two as both jumped apart from each other, both checking their own bodies for any sort of injuries. Tsuna had nothing serious, just mere grazes and bruises that could heal in itself for a few days, though he's panting more heavily than when they started; Alaude on the other hand, had been leaning on his right foot more and looked thoroughly exhausted. Having the chance to speak without being attacked, Tsuna immediately took the opportunity to clear off any misunderstanding that had passed through them and find out the reason why Alaude assaulted him.

"Had I not made it clear earlier that I am not an enemy of yours?" Tsuna said, testing Alaude's countenance over his declaration.

"Vongola," was Alaude's only answer as he had leapt for an attack once more.

_Goddamn. _He made a mistake. Alaude's allegiance with Vongola wasn't a well-known fact as of yet. Only Vongola's upper echelon had knowledge over Alaude's connection to them. Alaude's a police after all, and siding with a vigilante group would spell trouble to himself. That's the reason why Vongola had kept quiet about him and his own classified division in the vigilante group, which had become the CEDEF in the future. So, Alaude's onslaught was actually well justified. Tsuna wasn't supposed to know this information. And for him to simply blurt this out meant that Tsuna had somehow acquired this information in a rather guileful way, which then opens the question of for what reason does Tsuna need this information. The most likely answer to this was for the impairment of Vongola.

"Wait," Tsuna tried as he caught Alaude's handcuff in his one hand, "I'm not-!" Alaude reeled his foot to his side before he could finish the sentence. He grimaced. That one's going to be a dark ugly bruise later on. Despite his initial try, he still continued to get his explanation across the older man. Alaude thereby continued to not listen and poured his offense. But he was patient and waited instead for the right moment…

_There. _His intuition guided him with the right timing as he found an opening from Alaude's form. Tsuna immediately pounded Alaude on the guts, knocking the wind out of him. The man collapsed to the ground, very close to fainting but had still withheld his consciousness enough to hear Tsuna's parting words.

"I repeat, I am not and will never be an enemy to Vongola. Do remember that,"

* * *

Notes:

*I think Dino and Tsuna would have grown closer in the years they've known each other, especially if they have the same crazy sadistic tutor known as Reborn. That's why I elevated Dino's honorific from Dino-_san _to Dino-_nii. _

Translations (© google translate):

(Italian)

_Inafferabile combattente _- literally means "elusive combatant." As I've said before, I'm not an expert to Italian, which is why I use Google Translate, so I just typed in words of the same meaning and chose which sounds better in Italian and chuck them all together._ Inafferabile_ means elusive, whereas _combattente_ means combatant or fighter.

_Bramosia -_ means greed, longing, yearning, anxiety. To those who've read RnB, you've probably noticed that I've merely recycled the name, that's because I'm not very creative with names (and titles). It's my weakness. If you've observed my fic's titles, you would have noticed how ridiculously stupid and unimaginative they are. So yeah. Hope no one minds.

_Decimo –_ means tenth. Enough said.

(Japanese - Romaji)

_Dame -_ No good or useless. Its canon, so I think everyone knows what that means.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter seemed to be all over. My thoughts had been all over the place as well while I was writing this. So yeah… I had to research about time travelling theories and stuff. And I had quite the difficulty of writing Alaude's and Tsuna's fight scene. It's really hard to imagine how one's going to fight using handcuffs. Seriously. Which were why it took me a while to finish this. Also, sorry, I hadn't added Knuckle in this chapter like I had promised from the last one. I just thought it would be better to not have him show here just yet. But be rest assured that he's definitely on the next chapter.

I also seem to have forgotten to mention last chapter of my updating habits. The thing about my updating habit is that I have none. I might update the next hour, the following day, next week, or a month later. It depends on how much free time I have and whether I'm on a slump or not. But hopefully, it wouldn't come to the point where I couldn't update for months. Though, just a bit of fore warning, although Christmas vacation is almost near, I might not be able to update as often as you might think on those days because I'm going to willingly not take that vacation just so I could finish our thesis. Gawd, to those who hadn't had experienced college yet, it's damn stressful. Especially if you're on a candidate for graduation. The same could be said for the first three months of the following year because it's going to be a really busy month. Although I would try to update nonetheless, this is one of my stress-reliefs after all.

Oh, and I hadn't proof-read this yet because it's past midnight already and I need to be up early tomorrow. So I'll just edit it tomorrow… or later.

But anyway, as always, I encourage everyone to review. It gives me so much joy just reading them. And the responses over this fic (and my other fics) were so overwhelming! Thank you all for your support. I'll try to do my best in writing. So please…!

Leave a review!


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